| Written by Ron Stang, Catholic Register Special,
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 Assumption Church, serving the oldest Catholic parish west of Montreal, could close if funds aren’t found to repair significant parts of the building, which dates from 1846.
The landmark church, officially designated a heritage building, stands in the shadow of the Ambassador Bridge connecting Windsor and Detroit and is adjacent to the University of Windsor. It is the fourth actual building of the parish that was founded by the French as a mission in 1728.
The historic nature of the church, along with the fact it’s one of the area’s largest, seating almost 900, has made it the site of significant funerals, including those of Senator Paul Martin (father of former prime minister Paul Martin Jr.), and Yves Landry, former president of Chrysler Canada.
“It’s an issue, it’s a real concern in the absence of a huge donor,” said pastor Fr. Paul Walsh.
An architectural report completed in mid-December pegs the cost of renovations at $9.8 million, considerably higher than an estimate of $6.1 million in 2004. By far, most of the renovations are needed for the outside of the church. This includes brickwork, a cornice on two sides of the church, pinnacles that sit above the cornice, a rotted wooden beam that supports the roof’s balustrade and work on the bell tower and the sanctuary.
“We discovered that the damage gets worse the higher you go,” Walsh said.
The chief cause of the damage is water. But the church didn’t benefit from renovations to the balustrade in the early 1980s when mortar high in cement content rather than lime was used. “And lime moves with the expanding and contracting of the brick in the hot and cold seasons, concrete doesn’t,” Walsh said.
There have been some suggestions that damage might also have been caused from vibrations by the traffic, especially heavy trucks, that use the Ambassador Bridge. Some 10,000 trucks a day cross the bridge. But Walsh said that hasn’t been proven.
Part of the problem the parish faces is that it doesn’t have a lot of resources. Though a historically significant religious institution and a prestigious civic site, the church is located in an area where there is not significant wealth. Nor does the parish have as large or as solid a block of parishioners as it once did, with “more transient” churchgoers, said Noreen MacGillis Richards, an Assumption parishioner for more than 50 years and a member of the church’s conservation committee and parish council.
Walsh said he has had discussions since last January with the diocese of London about the church’s general state of disrepair.
“In terms of someone working full time on this project you’re talking to the only person who’s involved full time,” he said. “It’s really not my training or expertise or anything like that.”
Walsh argued that the state of the church should be a concern not just to Assumption or Catholics in Windsor “but for the diocese — we think this is diocesan heritage, it’s not simply our heritage.”
And he said the church isn’t only important to Catholics but to the history of Ontario. As a church booklet points out, “When virtually all the rest of southern Ontario was still a wilderness, on its westernmost point the church had established a permanent position under the patronage of Our Lady of the Assumption.”
Beyond its age the building has architectural and artistic flourishes, including a beautifully coloured vaulted ceiling and the wooden pulpit from the third church that preceded it, and art work that attests to its French heritage such as fleur-de-lis.
Diocese spokesman Larry Brennan said the diocese is “very much” aware of the church’s significance and called the state of disrepair and renovation costs a “huge issue.”
Noting the diocese had just received the report of Assumption’s condition, he said “we need a chance to review that report and meet with the parish leadership to discuss what the options are.”
Brennan said it was premature to discuss the nature of the funding the diocese could provide “because I feel that would be unhelpful in the future.”
Walsh suggested other sources of funding could also be tapped, such as governments or private foundations or individuals.
(Stang is a freelance writer in Windsor, Ont.)
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